


You're Drowning Tony

by Luna_Conners



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Everyone Has Issues, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Past Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Science Bros, Steve Rogers Has PTSD, Stony - Freeform, Tony Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Has Nightmares
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2017-06-13
Packaged: 2018-08-21 17:52:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8254933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Conners/pseuds/Luna_Conners
Summary: Basically Tony runs himself into the ground trying to help his team. By the time they notice he's nearly gotten himself killed, and that's just the first few chapters! This is probably going to get dark. Not sure where it's going yet. But there will be Stony, and there will be smut. Buckle up kiddos it's gonna be a wild ride.





	1. There's Beauty In The Bleeding At Least You Feel Something

**Author's Note:**

> Chapter title: "I Am Machine" by: Three Days Grace

Manually guiding a nuke through a wormhole was not an easy task, aiming it after getting through said wormhole was even harder. Even if his target was a miles wide alien space craft. Tony Stark knew the mission he’d taken on himself was suicide, knew the chances of him walking away were astronomical, but that didn’t shake his resolve. Despite Steve’s words on the helicarrier he was the guy to make "the sacrifice play", for all his bravado and fame his goal had always been to protect people. Even when he’d been selling arms to the US government, he’d done it to protect their soldiers from harm, and to pay for inventions that paved the way for new strides in the communications and medical fields. If he made an insane amount of money doing it who cared? Most of it went to charities anyway. But the Avengers, much like everyone else he’d ever met, failed to see through the mask he’d perfected over years. It wasn’t their fault, they didn’t expect him to be battered and bruised behind the false smiles because he did his best not to let it slip, and when he did he covered the lapse with a quip that had everyone in the room rolling their eyes.

Sudden silence as he flew through the wormhole brought his thoughts back to focus. Coms were gone, J.A.R.V.I.S was silent, and the suit was freezing. But those issues didn’t demand his attention in the same way the armada in front of him did, at least 100 ships heading for the portal over New York. An armada that would decimate the Earth. Tony released the missile and watched it fly towards the largest ship he could see, then he fell back towards Earth. He had never planned for suit to withstand this kind of temperature, he was out of power, and couldn’t move a muscle from the weight of the dead armor. Blood rushed through his ears, nausea and dizziness warring before panic started to set in. He was going to die. He was going to hit the ground and die. Sure he had made his choice but death always seemed abstract to him, even when he was held by the Ten Rings, he’d always assumed that he would be able to talk his way out of death. Now here he was, there would be no talking, even now blackness was encroaching on the edges of his vision. The last thing he saw was the brilliance of the nova and then... his world went dark.

Tony jerked awake, struggling to free his limbs of the blankets they were trapped in. His heart hammered in his chest as his brain processed that no, he was not falling through the atmosphere. He was safe (well... relatively), in the tower. The engineer ran his fingers through his hair and took a breath.

"Pull it together, Stark." He swung his legs over the bed and stood up. There was no way he was getting back to sleep now.

"Sir, might I recommend a sleep aid? In the last 3 weeks you’ve gotten less then 12 hours of sleep. Continued prolonging will lead to declines in mental faculties."

"It’s fine Jar. I’ve handled worse." Between Avenger operations, designing things for S.H.I.E.L.D, and keeping his own company afloat his days had been pretty full. "Anyone else awake?" He asked before the A.I. could protest further.

"Ms. Romanoff has been pacing through her floor of the tower for 20 minutes, and Captain Rogers is in the gym." Tony frowned and looked at the clock by his nightstand, 0205, looks like it wasn’t just his PTSD acting up tonight. He thought about going to talk to Natasha, but maybe it would be better to wait until he could present her with her modified Widows Bite. Rogers was definitely a no-go, unless he wanted to be lectured about the importance of sleep. So it was coffee and then the lab.

Tony slipped on a pair of jeans over his boxers, what was once a white tank top just covered the belt loops. His boots were next, the amount of times he’d dropped something on his bare feet had led to a strict closed toed shoes only policy. He stepped into the waiting elevator. "Common floor Jar." He instructed, listening to whirl of machinery as the metal box dropped down a few floors. When the metal doors slid open the dark common room was all that greeted him. The lights came up to the brightness setting J.A.R.V.I.S knew he preferred, it was still dim, but he could see well enough now. He made a pot of coffee leaning against the counter while he waited. Once the machine chimed he poured a cup and started down to the lab.

\----------------------------

Steve entered the common area, watching the lights come up as he did. While he found most of Stark’s inventions frivolous J.A.R.V.I.S was one that fascinated him. He’d spent hours quizzing the A.I. when he’d first arrived at the tower. He had greatly sped up the time it took Steve to catch up on world events while he’d been asleep.

Steve’s musings were interrupted by the sight of the coffee maker, now set to simply keep its contents warm. “Who’s up?” He wondered not expecting an answer, but the aforementioned A.I. caught him up. “Ms. Romanoff is on her floor, and Mr. Stark is in his lab.”

Steve frowned and leaned against the counter, he and Nat could handle sleep deprivation, but the engineer had never been trained as a solider. Stark’s lack of sleep usually meant he’d been caught up in some new project and one of the Avengers would soon be outfitted with a shiny new toy.

“When was the last time Stark got more then 4 hours of sleep in one night?”

“It has been approximately 2 months, sir.” If it was possible for an A.I. to sound miffed , the automated Butler did.

“So when we got back from the last Avenger opp.”

“affirmative, sir.” Steve sighed and rubbed his eyes, so far the lack of sleep hadn’t hurt the team, but one day it would. The problem was he had no idea how to deal with Stark, he was brilliant and did excellent work when he set his mind to it, but his intelligence led him to bump heads with everyone he thought was doing something stupid. Which was the vast majority of the world most days. The scientist was so flippant about things that Steve wondered if he took anything seriously.

\-------- one week later --------

Tony stormed into the lab knocking away whatever was on his main table. “Pull up the schematics for Romanoff’s suit and the Widows Bite.” Tony ordered in a way that suggested if J.A.R.V.I.S even suggested an alternative Tony would turn him into a very interesting Web browser. The plans materialized in front of him and his fingers flicked through the files with barely controlled fury.

Natasha had gotten hurt. Tony had delayed his upgrades to her gear to finish off some project Fury had wanted done _right goddamn now, Stark_. And Natasha had nearly been killed, the bullet hadn’t been fatal but the ground contact afterwards nearly had been. The Black Widow would be bullet proof before he was done.

When Steve entered the lab a few hours later, AC/DC was blaring and Tony was bent over Widows Bite, a new version of Natasha’s costume was being printed a short distance away on one of Tony's 3D printers. “Stark, Fury asked me to request a status update on the blueprints he asked you for.” Steve was a little surprised to see the tight set of Stark’s shoulders, normally he looked at ease in his lab.

“Fury can wait. I’ve got something else in the works.” He didn’t look up.

“Fury says he requested them last-“

“I know when he wanted them. I’ll get to them later. Tell him he’ll have the damn schematics in two days.” That would give him enough time to finish what he was doing and run simulations for what Fury wanted.

Steve stepped further into the lab looking at Tony with a frown. “Stark are you alr- is that blood ?” he demanded rushing to the engineers side. He was right, Tony’s side was bleeding, although it seemed sluggish now the shirt he was wearing was wet with it. “Stark. Medical. Now.” Steve ordered in a tone that suggested he wasn’t to be trifled with. Tony ignored him, his eyes still hadn’t left the fine work he was doing on the Widows Bite. Steve put a hand on his shoulder attempting to forcefully move him and Tony exploded.

“Do not touch me!” he snapped finally looking at Steve. “I’m fucking fine, an armor pricing round grazed me. Now leave me alone so I can fix Natasha’s gear.” He knocked Steve’s hand away, and the super solider was too stunned to do anything but let him, he’d never seen Tony actually put someone else before himself. “Get out.” His voice was composed again, he leaned back over the weapon and took a breath. While Steve was tempted to drag Tony to medical himself, he seemed fine. Instead he nodded and walked back out of the room, letting the door seal shut behind him. But not before he heard Stark’s voice again. “J.A.R.V.I.S full lock down.”


	2. Happiness Was Never Mine To Hold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It comes to light that Tony is not, in fact, okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter title:  
> Happiness By: The Fray
> 
> Side note: It's my friend's birthday guys! Happy birthday!!!!

Natasha was back in the tower two days later, Steve walked with her back to her room. Sitting on her bed was a new suit accompany by a light helmet (that Steve knew she wouldn’t wear) and her Widows Bite. “Stark works fast.” She muttered, running her fingers over the material. Steve frowned, but nodded his agreement. Given the testing that Stark put all of their gear through he wondered if the genius had slept. Fury had thanked him for rushing Stark about the blueprints that morning, Tony had followed through with the deadline he’d set.

“Get some rest Nat.” He told her with a light smile before he headed back out.

“J.A.R.V.I.S. is Stark awake?”

“He is still locked down in his lab, Captain.”

“When did he eat last?”

“Seventeen hours, sir.”

“Inform him that there’s a team dinner tonight. Attendance mandatory. I’ll drag him out of the lab myself if I had to.” Just as he finished the threat a shrill alarm bladed through the tower.

“I guess not.” Steve ran his fingers through his hair and redirected the elevator to his room. Someone needed the Avengers.

\------------------

Tony cursed the alarm going off in his workshop. He’d just hit the couch he kept down there, hoping to catch a few hours of shut eye before he got back to work. He wasn’t feeling well and a few hours of Jack assisted slumber would do him good. Instead the armor was now assembling itself around him. “What’s going on J?” he asked as the HUD flickered to life.

“Sir, it would appear Doombots have begun an assault at three separate locations in the city.” Tony rolled eyes ‘I can’t believe I got out of bed for this.’ He thought darkly, listening as the others left the building.

 _“Iron man, you take Hawkeye and hit central park, Thor, you handle the group on the outskirts, Banner, you’re with me at city hall.”_ Steve’s voice came in firm through the com links.

“Alright bird brain, let’s do this.” Tony swooped to the roof grabbing Barton as he headed for Central Park. “Tell me where you want your nest.” Tony ordered as rhetoric trees came into view.

 _“You can drop me here Tin Man.”_ Stark let him go and Clint found himself perched in a particularly tall tree. _“Let’s get down to business.”_ He notched an arrow and started firing.

\-------------------------

Steve and Bruce took care of their lot quickly, the Hulk was useful for rapidly eliminating targets, while Steve covered him.

“Can you help Thor big guy? I’ll head to the park.” He was never quite sure if the Hulk was following orders or just fighting until there wasn’t anything left to fight. The creature nodded and was gone in a moment, Steve starting running.

_“Iron Man, status?”_

\---------------

Tony realized he was in trouble when his vision started to swim, at first he thought he’d been hit, or worse, drunk. But J.A.R.V.I.S was quick to inform him that his temperature had spiked even higher and he suspected Tony’s recent wound was infected. He’d switched off external comms and tried to start damage control.

“J.A.R.V.I.S it shouldn’t hit me this hard. Run a scan there’s something else going on.” He was still blasting Doombots like nothing was wrong, but his banter with Clint had ceased rapidly.

“Sir, your body has reached it limits, it can no longer fight without proper fuel and rest. I suggest you remove yourself from the battle before you jep-“

“Nonsense. I can handle Doombots.” Tony insisted, even as his vision waivered again. He absolutely could not throw up in his suit. Barton would never let him live it down, no way. “let’s just finish these guys off and get home.”

_“Iron man, status?”_

“Just cleaning up here, Captain.” He flicked his external coms open then shut again.

 _“Iron man up top!”_ Tony heard the call just in time to feel the blast. A Doombot had suicide bombed from above, the suit flew down hitting the ground hard Tony’s face impacting the faceplate. He could hear Clint cursing, while Rogers shouted for information. All Tony knew was his head hurt, and there was blood oozing from his nose.

“Sir, you have a concussion. Recommend seeking immediate medical attention.” As usual Tony attempted to ignore his A.I. and force himself to his feet. The suit whirled and complained, but it had withstood worse then this before. Tony’s body, however, had reached its limit.

“J, get me back to the tower. I need a nap…” Tony handed over controls to J.A.R.V.I.S, despite the A.I.’s instant protests. Sleeping with a concussion was not what most doctors recommended, but sleep was what his body was demanding and he couldn’t resist it anymore. Not after months of forcing himself to keep going so his equipment, and that of the others, stayed top of the line. So for the first time, Tony Stark passed out in one of the few places he felt secure: His armor.

\------------------

 _“Captain, we have a problem.”_ Steve jerked to a halt near where Tony and Clint were standing, his eyes went to the armor in disbelief, J.A.R.V.I.S never took over Tony’s com line.

“What’s happening J.A.R.V.I.S?” The Captain’s eyebrows were furrowed behind his cowl, while he wanted to demand the information he needed from Tony, it didn’t seem like he was responsive at the moment. Even Clint was watching the armor with concern.

 _“Master Stark should be escorted to a medical facility immediately. I believe he has an infection as well as a concussion.”_ While the delivery held little inflection it was clear from the haste of his words that J.A.R.V.I.S was concerned. Steve watched the expressionless armor with an annoyed frown.

“Is he muted in there? Tell him to open the suit.” Tony had been hiding from the rest of them entirely too much lately.

 _“I’m afraid he can’t, Captain. Master Stark is unconscious within the suit. I will open the hatch however, be prepared to catch him. Dr. Banner has just arrived.”_ J.A.R.V.I.S informed him of all of this in the same time as the suit began to release it’s user. Tony fell from the suit, unconscious as J.A.R.V.I.S had informed him. Steve was surprised at the ease with which he caught the engineer, Tony was extremely light. He definitely hadn’t been eating properly. Before he could examine anything much further Banner was at his side.

“We should get him out of here. This place is going to be crawling with agents any minute. He won’t want S.H.I.E.L.D doctors looking at him.” Steve nodded and opened his mouth to give orders, but the whirl of the quinjet stopped him. Blue eyes looked up incredulously, spotting bright red hair.

 _“Need a lift?”_ Natasha’s voice filtered through the link as she set the jet down. Clint let out a woop, high fiving Nat as he climbed into the jet.

“Widow you were grounded.” Steve muttered as he approached the jet.

“If you thought for one second I was going to stay in the tower when J.A.R.V.I.S came over the comms you’re an idiot.” She informed him, helping Steve load Tony in.

 _“I thought it best that Ms. Romanova bring the jet given the flight methods of the Avengers it is the safest way to escort Master Stark to emergency crews awaiting us at the tower.”_ Steve looked back to address the A.I. only to find that the suit was long gone. J.A.R.V.I.S had spoken through the jet’s speakers. Now that was unnerving, Stark let the A.I. have access to all his systems and sometimes Steve forgot just how far reaching that was.

Banner and Thor filed in behind them, the latter of the two leaning over to loudly ask Clint, now sitting in the co-pilots seat, what had happened to Tony. Bruce knelt next to where Tony was strapped down on the gurney. The sound of the engine spinning up muffled any sound that he made as he slid the IV into Tony’s arm, the engineer’s eyes shot open as the needle pierced his skin.

\----------------------

Tony jerked away from the prick he felt in his arm, instantly trying to assess a threat. His vision wouldn’t focus and all he could hear was the dull roar in his ears. His heart stuttered behind his arc reactor, he couldn’t remember drinking anything, that left being drugged. He couldn’t clear his head. Why did his side hurt? Why was he being held down? Who the hell was touching him?!

“Tony. Tony it’s Bruce. You need to focus. You’re hurt.” Tony knew that voice. Bruce. Okay, Bruce was there. Avenger opp then. Okay. He took a few deep breaths, counting backwards, he felt heady… what was… oh.

“You sedated me.” He slurred at scientist above him, watching multiple versions of Bruce lean in close.

“I had to Tony. You summoned your gauntlet, the rest of the suit J.A.R.V.I.S managed to override.” His voice was soft and the only thing Tony felt like he could focus on at that moment. A quick glance down confirmed the statement though, his gauntlet was strapped to his hand the repulsor glowing a similar shade to his arc reactor.

“Tech’s not perfect yet, still working on programing anomalies, failsafes….” Tony was rambling but Bruce seemed good at ignoring it. “Bruce I don’t think you’re supposed to sleep with a concussion.” His eyes were feeling heavy from the sedation and he didn’t think he was going to make it the next couple minutes to the tower.

“Lesser of two evils Tony, couldn’t have you shooting holes in the jet. It’ll be fine, you’ve got medical waiting at the tower." Tony tried to focus on what Bruce was saying but he was already halfway gone, his eyes rolled back and his body went limp on the gurney again.

\-------------------

Steve watched the tower get larger as the jet approached the helipad, his gaze occasionally flicked back to where the unconscious engineer lay. Bruce was doing a good job of keeping him stable even if Tony had nearly taken his head off with the gauntlet. J.A.R.V.I.S had dismissed the small piece of armor and the glove had whirled to the back of the jet where Tony kept a spare suit.

Looking at him now, Steve could see the rough shape Tony was in. There were dark circles under his eyes and every breath seemed more labored then it should. Without the snarky attitude and eyes sparking with intelligence it was easy to see. How had Steve missed the signs? And the response he’d had to Bruce sticking him with the needle… Steve had seen that response before. Sam had told him about vets who had seen combat responding to outside stimulus as a threat even if a normal option was far more logical. Tony Stark had far more issues then he had let on to and Steve had missed every sign Tony had practically thrown at him. Avoiding crowds unless he absolutely had to, there was a full size pooll in the tower that J.A.R.V.I.S. had told him to Tony never went near, he tensed whenever someone dropped anything, Steve had chalked all of it up to being eccentric and not wanting people to break his things. God he was an idiot.

They touched down on the roof and the medical team surged forward as soon as they could, taking information from Bruce and hurrying away. Just like that both scientists were gone. The rest of the Avengers started to trickle inside, but they were stopped when the elevator opened again. This time it revealed a pissed off Pepper Potts, and neutral faced Colonel James Rhodes.

“Captain? A word?” Rhodes was in uniform, signaling he’d been at work when he’d been contacted, Pepper appeared dressed for a meeting that she had probably cancelled to come here.

“Of course, Colonel.” He didn’t know the pilot of the War Machine well, and old habits died hard. Steve led the two off to the side of the helipad, a good distance from the where Nat and Clint stood eyeing the small group.

“What’s the hell happened to him?” Pepper demanded staring Steve down, regardless of the fact that he was taller then her.

“He got hit with a blast from a Doombot. It knocked him around inside the suit and they think he has a mild concussion-“ before he could continue Rhodes looked at him critically.

“Tony isn’t that careless. Impulsive sure, but he never gets his tech needlessly damaged. What aren’t you saying?” Rhodes still looked calm but his tension was clear, Steve wasn’t going to get away with not answering.

“J.A.R.V.I.S thinks he has an infection from a wound he sustained a few days ago.” Steve pulled his cowl off and ran his fingers through his hair, they weren’t going to take that well.

“Days ago? Why didn’t someone send him to medical?!” She demanded practically glaring daggers at Steve. “Aren’t you the team lead? Where the hell were you??” She pointed an accusing finger at Steve.

She was right, Steve couldn’t deny that he had known something was wrong that day in Tony’s lab. But he hadn’t wanted to deal with it so he’d just let Stark do his thing, now they were both paying for it. The truth was he’d been so wrapped up in his search for Bucky that he hadn’t been paying as much attention to the team. As much as Tony should have gone to medical when it started to bother him, Steve should have been making sure he was alright.

“He told me he was fine, I believed him instead of insisting he go to medical.” Steve admitted, watching Pepper and Rhodes share a look.

“Tony’s self destructive tendencies aren’t entirely your responsibility. We thought he was getting better.” Rhodes admitted folding his arms over his chest. “Anything happen that might have caused this?”

“Natasha got hurt during the mission before this. When I went to see Stark about something that Fury wanted finished he said he was working on another project, Natasha had a new gear set two days later.” Steve saw Pepper sigh and pinch the bridge of her nose before she spoke.

“Tony designed most of the gear you all use himself. He probably blames himself for Natasha’s injury. So of course he ignored his injuries to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.” She looked back at Rhodes, who nodded his agreement.

“We should go down to the medical ward. Tony is going to want us around when he wakes up. Someone is going to have to talk him into staying in bed.” Pepper nodded to Rhodes and the two went back to the elevator. Clint and Natasha rode down with them while Steve stayed on the roof.

Things were going to have to have to change now, Stark wasn’t going to be able to go on the way he was, and Steve was going to make him stop driving himself I to the ground. It wasn’t going to be easy, but given his stubborn streak Steve was sure he could at least annoy the engineer into making some positive changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you all think! I think I'm doing alright with these characters and the plot thus far. But I like to know what the rest of you think.
> 
> Another side note: I'm in the process of moving right now. So the next chapter might take a bit to get out. I'm going to try and get chapter 3 up next week, but if not it should be up before November 15.


	3. I’m Not O-Fucking-Kay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tony wakes up and the Avengers try to figure out how to deal with their self destructive engineer. 
> 
> Title: I’m Not Okay (I promise) By: My Chemical Romance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know. I'm the worst kind of person. But one move turned into two, and a new job. I finally have everything set up and got to work on this again. I'm going to get on a consistent schedule, I swear! Don't hate me too much.

Tony Stark awoke in what was, arguably, his least favorite place on the surface of the planet. A hospital. While there were plenty of other places he hated being, hospitals held a special place in his heart that predated the vast majority of his other hang-ups. Even as a child he had hated the scent of antiseptic, the plastic sympathetic looks, and eyes that viewed him the same way he viewed tech: distant and as a problem that needed to be solved.

The upside was painkillers, so even though he woke up in the hospital surrounded by people when he’d much rather go lick his wounds in private, he couldn’t really bring himself to actually care. At first it didn’t seem as if anyone had noticed his awakening: Pepper and Rhodey were quietly talking beside his bed, the only members of the Avengers around were Nat and Clint. Nat was reading a book and Clints head was in her lap while he fidgeted with an arrow. The female assassin lifted an eyebrow as Tony looked at her, implying that she was very much aware of his current state and was giving him the opportunity to feign sleep if he didn’t want to deal with his two favorite people’s concern at the moment.

“Someone tell me this hospital is using Stark tech because I will not put my life in anyone’s hands but my own.” The engineer declared causing the two to look down at him with surprise.

“Oh Tony.” Pepper reached down and took his hand, her green eyes were shining with tears and Tony immediately lost some of the bravado he had scraped together for his opening line.  

“Come one, Pep. You know it’ll take more than a doombot to level me.” Fortunately the painkillers were keeping the actual extent of his injuries away from the engineer's mind, though his head did sort of hurt. But it more like pressure than actual pain. “But seriously, where am I?” His eyes flicked to Rhodes questioningly, since Pepper seemed more content to just stare at him for the moment. He was sure she was debating smacking him for nearly getting himself killed, he was sure the tirade about his recklessness was incoming, but first she had to make sure he was alright.

“You’re in Avengers tower, medical level, Rogers and the others assumed you’d wouldn’t the Shield docs looking you over.” Tony nodded approvingly in response to his best friends words. “They assumed correctly. The nosy bunch would spend the whole time poking at my arc reactor and giving Fury reports on things they didn’t understand.” It was well known that shield wanted deeper access to Stark Industries that Tony wasn’t willing to give them. He barely trusted his own people most days, much less Fury’s. Nat and Clint were the obvious exception, they were more Avenger than Shield anyway.  If they were still giving old eye-patch reports they were respectful enough not to do  it on Tony’s network, and Fury didn’t seem to know anything he shouldn’t and J.A.R.V.I.S’ regular probes into their systems hadn’t revealed any prototype Stark tech so he was content to let the two of them stay in his tower with the others. “How long have I been down.”

“5 or 6 hours. Doctor Banner is talking to your team now, they just got the results of some blood work. Rogers is giving Fury a SITREP, much to his annoyance, and Thor had to head back to Asgard on business.” Nat piped up from her spot on the couch, Clint and her rose without any clear communication. Truth be told it was almost creepy how in sync they were sometimes.

“Good.  Now someone get me a StarkPad. I had a great idea from new tech while I was out. Might as well get it down while I’m rocking a drug induced pain-free state.” Tony’s words had Pepper glaring sharply at him and Clint chuckled as he stretched his arms over his head.

“You will get nothing even close to a StarkPad while you are in recovery Tony Stark. I forbid any work to be done in this hospital room.” Her eyes left little room for argument, but most of Tony’s career had been spent convincing people to see things his way and give him the money to do what he wanted. The one person who was immune to his charms most of the time was his lovely assistant-turned-CEO.  
  
“Pep, come on. I’m late on like three projects for the company and I think I owe clint at least three new kinds of arrows he requested, Banner needs pants that don’t fall off the second he changes back from a green rage monster, and-” The sound of Steve Roger’s voice cut him off before he could finish.“Don’t drag us into this, Tony. The team would much rather have you on your feet again, then laid out in a hospital room. Put the Avenger gear on hold, we’ve survived this long without it and we certainly won’t die in the next few days for the lack of Stark tech.” Captain America sounded mildly exasperated because of course Tony would be awake for all of five minutes before he demanded some work to do.

“No offense, Rogers but shield you use as a weapon is Stark tech and you would be long dead without it. Even America’s favorite super soldier wouldn’t live through a bullet to the brain.” Though there had been days he really wanted to test that theory, Steve had yet to annoy him enough for him to let the man die. They differed on some key issues, but once the team evened out it would hopefully serve as a balance. “What did Fury say?”“He expressed regret that the shield doctors on site couldn’t assist you and wanted me to make sure that they have the best and brightest at their disposal ready to aid your medical team whenever you’re ready.” Steve delivered the statement with a deadpan expression and Tony snorted.

“Fury has the b-list ‘best and brightest. _I_ have the best and brightest because I pay them far more than a government salary. No offense Rhody.” The colonel shrugged, shaking his head at Tony’s mild insult.

“Trust me, Tony. I understand exactly what you mean. I’m fortunate enough to be a colonel not most people don’t go that route.” Tony shot his friend a smirk and then narrowed his eyes. “War machine armor, does it need diagnostics? Tune ups? Is it still pulling left after I calibrated it? I swear I’ll scrap the whole thing and rebuild it from the ground up if it keeps giving you that issue.” Rhodes held up a hand to save them all an hour of the genius’ rambling threats to tech that had really done nothing wrong.

“Tony, quite worrying. I’ve flown aircraft that are more touchy than the suit. Everything runs fine and so far no one has figured out a way to knock me out of sky.” Tony’s eyes narrowed further at his best friend, trying to gauge exactly how truthful he was being.

“Fine.” He finally acquiesced before turning his puppy dog eyes on Pepper again. “You can’t sentence me to this Potts. It’s cruel and unusual punishment. I can’t sit in here for however long the doctors want to poke and prod at me without something to do. I’ll drive everyone in the building insane.” From where he stood spinning his arrow, Clint sighed and shook his head getting the attention from the rest of the room.

“You know he’s right. At least in this case he’s self aware enough to tell us.” Tony gestured to Clint with both hands like the man had saved from a fate worse than death.

“Someone in the room gets me. Clint your order just moved up on my priority list.” The archer didn’t know that Tony had already been working on Clint’s gear, and the statement seemed to endear Tony to him if nothing else so there was no reason for him to.

Pepper, sensing the room starting to turn in favor of not listening to Tony whine for days on end, finally sighed and seemed to resign herself to the fact that Tony Stark would not stop working until he stopped breathing. “Two hours a day. Pending a doctor’s approval that you’re cleared to work, and not Banner because he is not that kind of doctor.”

The aforementioned man walked into the room with a medical doctor on his heels. “I heard my name.” He said glancing between Tony and Pepper wearily. “Pepper is just setting up the terms and conditions of my confinement.” Tony explained as the CEO rolled her eyes.  

“Well, anyway, this is doctor Norris. You recruited her yourself Tony so I assumed that you would be alright with her carrying out your treatment.” Tony not slightly from his spot on the bed, he definitely remembered the doctor. A med student he’d met at a conference a few years ago who had shown a lot of potential and an understanding of the concepts he’d explained that led to her being offered a job with medical R&D on the spot pending her graduation from med school.

“Doctor, pleasure to see you again. What’s the prognosis?” “Well, Mr.Stark, you have a pretty nasty concussion and an aggressive infection. There are various other injuries to your body, including a couple of fractured ribs that were sustained around the same time that you were injured the first time. We will be keeping you under observation for a couple of days and once you clear a few tests and we get the infection under control you’ll be released.” Tony sighed and looked ready to argue that he could be monitored from the safety and familiarity of his lab, but there was an entire room of people that were giving him warning looks.

“As much as I’d love to debate your treatment plan, I think my CEO and team captain would have my head for it. So it sounds as if I’ll be you’re unwilling patient for a few days. Can you clear for a couple hours a day of work within the room so I don’t totally lose my mind? Ms. Potts seems to think a StarkPad might be alittle much in my current condition.” Pepper rolled her eyes and Norris chuckled. “I think two to three hours a day would be fine. The focus must obviously be on your recovery, but I would much rather you focus on work than start disassembling things in my room.” She smiled at Tony who looked relieved that he wouldn’t be totally isolated from his work over the next few days. “However, I must insist that what you work on carry little to no excess stressors. That would mean no Shield work as the directors presence tends to cause unnecessary stress and blood pressure rises according to your medical history.” Tony seemed more than willing to agree with that.

“Are you telling me that the director is such an issue that it’s been marked in Tony’s medical file?” Clint asked, shooting Rogers a glance, it seemed this was linked to a conversation they’d been having before. Norris nodded, her face annoyed while she flipped through the paperwork on the chart.

“Yes. The director has been banned from the ward after the last time he insisted Ms.Romanoff be checked into a Shield facility and Mr. Barton had to respectfully request he leave.” She appeared exasperated with the very thought to the director’s presence. “Though we were more worried about Mr. Barton’s blood pressure than Ms. Romanoff’s.” She smiled at that thought and glanced at Clint who had folded his arms over his chest and sighed.

“Nat was in no condition to be moved on the his whims.” Seemed to be all he had to say on the subject.

“Mr. Stark, I recommend you get some sleep for the time being and tomorrow we will get some more tests conducted to make sure everything is progressing the way we want it to.” Tony nodded and then looked at the others.

“As much as I enjoy an audience, I think I can pass out on my own.” He stated watching the group slowly filter towards the door. All except Clint, who found his way to the couch and threw his feet up over the armrest.  “That means you too, birdbrain.” Tony reminded, only to be met with a grin.

“Nope. I’m here in case any bad guys get any dumb ideas. This is how we operate remember? Get used to me Stark cause I’m here for the next 12 hours at least.” Tony groaned as Norris crossed the room to adjust his IV and morphine drip.

“Don’t worry. This will knock you out in minutes. You won’t even be aware of him.”“You are a saint Norris.” \----------------

Steve left the room with the others, Pepper and Rhodes coming out last after they said their goodbyes to Tony.

“As much as I would love to be around 24/7 I have a company to run. Rogers, we need to make sure that Tony is eating and getting rest. Things like this will keep happening if not.” Steve nodded his agreement the CEO.

“It’s not fair to make everyone else responsible for Tony’s health. We need to be trying to get him to talk to someone as well. He can’t keep going on the way is and we can’t all be taking care of him like he’s a child at all times.” Rhodes said folding his arms over his chest as the group got some distance from Stark’s hospital room.

“Stark won’t like being babied.” Natasha warned, her eyes scanning each member of the hospital staff as they left, making sure that both of the members that they left behind were safe.

“Tony doesn’t like anything that’s good for him. We’re going to do it anyway. That means taking him food and forcing him to sleep on occasion. We don’t have to treat him like a child, be we do need to get him to take care of himself. Even if the only motivation for it is because Tony is supposed to be watching our backs in a fight the same way we’re supposed to watch his and he can’t do that if things like this start happening more often.” Steve finally spoke up, giving what he had considered his course of action.

“Tony has been struggling for awhile. I knew things were bothering him, but I had no idea it was this bad. Steve, maybe you should have him talk to Sam.” Steve sighed loudly and shook his head.

“He’ll think I’m trying to keep tabs on him if I push him in that direction.”“Whatever we do, Stark can’t think that we’re trying force him into anything, he’ll push further away.” Nat finished the train of thought, her face not betraying whatever was going on in her mind.

“Please, contact one of us if he seems to backslide. We can help.” Pepper nodded to the team and then looked apologetically at Steve. “I apologize for snapping at you. I’ve been worried about Tony since things between us deteriorated, when J checked in with us it was a confirmation of my fears.” She admitted, looking at Rhodes who nodded his agreement with her statement.

“We’ll be checking in on him more often as well.” He stated as the team loaded onto the elevator. “We’ll catch the next one. Go get some rest.”

The doors slid shut, separating the Avengers from Tony’s best friends as they road to Banner’s floor. “I’ll see you all later. I’ve got some files to look over for Tony about some equipment he was working on before the crash. I want to finish it up for him.” With that the doctor was gone, the doors sliding shut and leaving just him and Nat. “Steve, don’t shoulder this to heavily.” She told him as the elevator halted at her floor. “Tony was self destructive long before any of us came along.” She put a hand on his shoulder and then left him alone as well.

Despite what Natasha had told him, he did shoulder much of what had happened to Tony as his fault. From the day they had met Steve had criticized Tony for not being his father, for not embodying everything he thought the man should. Maybe if he hadn’t been show quick to judge Tony there wouldn’t have been this distance between him and the rest of the team. Now that he was starting to see cracks that should have been obvious from the moment they met, Steve felt like a real ass. He’d done nothing to get Tony to place any form of trust in him, judging everything he did through the eyes of a man from the 30s, making little, if any effort to actually try to understand the man behind the literal and figurative armor.

 _Not anymore_. Steve resolved, his eyes narrowing at the doors as they slid open onto his own floor. Tony would feel like he was part of the team or Steve wasn’t half the leader he thought he was. The man with a plan had made Tony his next mission and Captain America was a stubborn SOB.


End file.
